Buffalo Bisons baseball – Triple-A affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays

Duda does it, again

The big bat of Lucas Duda came through in the clutch for the Buffalo Bisons.

The Herd’s 2010 Most Valuable Player had the biggest hit on Friday night in Rochester with an eighth-inning home run in a 3-2 Bisons win over Rochester at Frontier Field.

Duda’s second blast on the season broke a 2-2 tie and gave Buffalo a split of a four-game series with the Red Wings.

It was only a matter of time until Duda’s powerful swing had an impact on this Bisons’ season. After 42 extra-base hits in 70 games with the team in 2010, the 25-year old slugger had just one double and no home runs in his first 17 games with Buffalo in 2011.

Duda doubled in his first at-bat on Friday, driving a Yorman Bazardo pitch over the head of the speedy Ben Revere and scoring Kirk Nieuwenhuis for the game’s first run. Duda then scored on single from Valentino Pascucci for a 2-0 edge.

Rochester tied it at two in the first inning and the game stayed locked up until the eighth. Duda led off the inning by taking a 1-2 pitch to deep centerfield for the game winning run.

Duda now has three doubles and two home runs in his last five games.

Jenrry Mejia started for Buffalo but could only get through four innings of work. He used 39 of his 81 pitches in the first inning as the Red Wings scored their only two runs of the game.

Mike O’Connor earned the win with three innings of work. Dale Thayer worked the eighth and ninth inning for his first save of the season.

The Bisons will now travel to Lehigh Valley for a four-game series against the IronPigs.

BISONS NOTES: Statistically ranked 14th of 14 teams in defense, the Bisons played errorless baseball in three of the four games in their series against Rochester…Jesus Feliciano finished the game 2-4…Catcher Ronny Paulino was activated by the Mets off his mlb injury rehab assignment with the Bisons. Paulino played seven games with Buffalo.

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